This is World Mission Sunday and our minds and hearts reach out today to people who in extraordinary ways make it their business in life to live out the Gospel of Jesus on the Continents of Africa and Asia, and in South America. “For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” These catechists remind us that we share this mission here in America, and in Europe where the faith is weakening and our silence deafening.

Christ needs us my friends, to be catechists in a new generation of disciples. In these very public times, we have an opportunity to express Christ’s teaching as servants of both the Word and the Sacrament, in the way the Church reveals that Truth to us.

Do not allow fear or complacency to get in the way of being a faithful servant of God. The trouble today is people do not understand who we are and we need to be able to explain to them the words of Jesus in our lives.  Speak the words given to you by the Holy Spirit and do not be afraid. God is with you.

Jesus needs you to learn the Catechism so you can explain to people in the marketplace what Christ means when He says love your neighbor, love even your enemy!

Jesus went into the marketplace and preached about human dignity and reverence. He preached these things as the Father taught Him. Jesus, being His father’s obedient Son, did as He was commanded. We can do no less.

Jesus sets the example for us; do not be afraid to give up your own life for the sake of others. It makes you more human and better able to reflect the face of God.

The story of rich young man challenges us at the dawn of this holy year of faith to look more carefully at how the young man approached Jesus and how Jesus met him.

The wealthy young man came running. He flung himself at the feet of the poor, penniless carpenter from Nazareth. The man calls Jesus, “good” and immediately Jesus stops him: Don’t flatter me! Jesus then leads him to the Father.

While at first, it seems that Jesus is trying to cool the young man’s enthusiasm, Jesus did what every evangelizer should be careful to do: point to the God. Often times we find a preacher who is exciting and fun to listen to; there develops a kind of personality cult around them. The preacher can forget his job is to lead others to Christ.

Jesus knows that this man’s zeal has led him to fall to his knees, but he should not fall simply because he was overcome with emotion. Jesus, the teacher needs to bring him along and help him mature in his faith.

Did you notice that Jesus only laid out the negative commandments that the young man excitedly says he has kept? Because Jesus realized this is where the man was in his life. This is good if you want to be a good citizen, a good person. But to gain eternal life, what more have you done?

The Christian life consists not in being just a good person; in just ‘not doing wrong things.’ The Christian Way involves ‘doing right things’, putting yourself out for others; drawing others in. In effect Jesus is saying to the young rich man, do the right thing, take all of your possessions, all that you have and are and use them for the good of others.

Jesus is asking us how much do you want to get to heaven? It may be respectable never to take anything away from anyone, that’s just being good.  It is the Christian way to give everything to someone.

Jesus looks at the young man with love. Why? Because Jesus does love him and because He does so much, He wants the man to be everything  he is called to be and to do everything he is capable of doing. Jesus looks at us the same way. He challenges us, He looks into our eyes and sees what we might be, what we could be if we accept His challenge to love others.

All disciples of Jesus are called in this Holy Year of Faith to consider their own relationship with Christ in the Church and to see in real and effective ways how that faith can become more attractive in a world that is learning what ‘life without God means:;’ to enter a desert of human experience, a void in real emotion, the confusion of irrational thought and alienation from love and truth.

The Church enters this desert in order to “rediscover the value of what is essential for living; to recognize a true thirst for God. The Church needs people of faith like you to be in the desert to look with love on those who have stalled their faith in emotion and lead them to a more mature love that involves commitment, perseverance and sacrificial joy.

It is the power and influence of the Holy Spirit that draws the Church to this moment of opening. It is here we can clarify our Creed with the knowledge and surety that these beliefs will embrace the whole person, body and soul. And, since he is a pilgrim on this earth, they will lead him always toward eternal life.

As a parish we dedicate ourselves once again to building up the faith in new ways with a new excitement and a mature zeal, given so generously to us by God, within our families and within our parish.

Meditating here at the Baptismal Font, we have come to recognize there are within our community Catholics who have abandoned the true faith, embracing other churches in order to find easy, uncommitted way to meet emotional needs. We have Catholics too who are in danger of losing their faith from a lack of perseverance in their religious practice; they have allowed material things to take precedence over the spiritual realities.

These are the challenges in King of Prussia. This holy year will be a time for us to mature and deepen the practice of our faith, and face straightforwardly these challenges, then go out, through this door, and proclaim Christ as Lord of all Life.

I say, “we,” because I cannot do this alone; I need you to walk with me, to run with me to the feet of our Lord and ask him, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

We seek on this day and in the days to come, a door to faith, a deeper faith, a converting faith, a faith rendered unto God Who looks at us with love. Catholics are increasingly vulnerable to secular and fundamentalist movements that pull us away from our relationship with God. This holy year strives to pull us together once again under the folds of the Good Shepherd.

This year will be a time to reflect more deeply on the gift of faith, by meditating at the baptismal font; by deepening our knowledge and understanding of the Catechism and the Documents of the Second Vatican Council; by reading, reflecting and praying with Scripture, by nourishing and strengthening our faith through the Holy Eucharist and finally, by becoming brighter lights to become ourselves “the door of faith” for others.

Let us go forth from this place and time; seeking God with all our hearts, knocking on the door of those who have lost their way; asking them to join us in Sunday worship so together we can find once again the unity for which we long and the communion He so desires.

Go out then, be a true and more mature Christian, don’t ever give the least, give the most and you will inherit eternal life.

“To Jesus Christ, our most amiable Redeemer, immortal King of peoples and of times, be love, power, and glory forever and ever. Amen”  (John XXIII)

History is filled with people who wanted to achieve perfection in this life by denying themselves all the pleasures of this world. Jesus speaks to these people and to us who want to be His disciples. “Let him deny himself.” What does that mean?

We need to take this demand simply and literally. “Let him say no to himself.” If we are follow Jesus Christ we must learn to say no to ourselves and yes to Christ. We must practice saying no to the natural love of comfort and pleasure. We must say no to the instincts and the desires that prompt us to touch and taste and handle forbidden things.

Remember your Catholic School report card? There was a grade there for self-discipline? This is a vital tool for parents to teach their children. We do not have to satisfy our every desire or impulse. We can control ourselves even though it is not pleasant or does not feel good. What self-discipline does is teach children how to be discerning of good and evil; to distinguish between what I want or desire and what I truly need. Self-discipline cannot be learned alone. It must be taught within the family and re-enforced by each parent, father and mother.

The true disciple of Christ must say yes to the voice and the command of Jesus that we find clearly in the Church. We must be able with Saint Paul to the Galatians say, “It is not I who live, but Christ Who lives in me.” The disciple lives no longer to follow his own will but to follow the will of Christ, and in that service find perfect freedom.

Submission to the Will of God is not an act of slavery. It is rather an act of likeness. We desire ourselves to be like God Who is creative, forgiving and holy. The Gospel reminds us that many people will find this teaching restrictive and hard to live.

Certainly if we try to be the perfect self-reliant individual rather than a perfecting Christ, we will run into a lot of heartache.

But, if we allow ourselves to be seeing more deeply into the Truth, we will come to understand that being Christian is not the simple result of following the ethical standards of the Ten Commandments.

We are Christians because we encounter the person of Jesus Christ who gives new life and new direction.  He frees us to be in a relationship based on love not fear.

Through this relationship, we become in fact subordinate to the other out of reverence for Christ.

Joshua says decide today who you will serve the gods of self-centeredness and self-absorption or God Himself Who will set you free.

Paul today in his letter to the Ephesians give us directions on how to navigate through these confused and hectic times in which we live.

“Watch carefully how you live.” “Understand what is the will of the Lord. Be filled with the Holy Spirit; watch how much you drink, address one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs giving thanks always for everything.

We are the ones to whom the Bread of Life is given. We consume the Body and Blood of Christ and because we do this we have the life given to us by the Father. This life we live is given to us. So how do we learn about the Will of God in this life, in our life together as a parish, in your life together as a family and in your life within the family of God: the Blessed Trinity?

So much information is available to us today to search. My best resources are both the Vatican Website, the Archdiocesan website, even our parish website. They are full of information about how to discern God’s Will.

And so we too can hear those wonder-filled words from Proverbs: “Wisdom has built her house. Let whoever is simple turn in here and to those who lack understanding, she says, “Come, eat of my food and drink of the wine I have mixed. Looking in the right places will advance your understanding!”

Faith is not a passive or a stagnant gift. Faith is active and creative: filled with unpredictability and yet always the same, always directed to God alone. If it rests in our hearts and we expect it to do all the work, it will die. Take the gift given you and use it, exercise it, proclaim it, give it – these are all action words. You can do it if you trust in Him Who gives you the Bread Life!  Consume this Bread and “be transformed into what you consume (Saint Leo the Great).”